Baylor in NCAA tournament 5 years after program ravaged by murder

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, March 15, 2008

As anxious as the wait was for the Baylor Bears, being the last team called Sunday for the NCAA tournament was somewhat fitting for one of college basketball's most incredible turnarounds.

"Being the 65th pick is just indicative of the Baylor Bears and how we persist and hang in there," coach Scott Drew said, his voice straining after the loud celebration. "It looks like we might be down or we're out, and we're able to come through."

Five seasons after Drew took over a program ravaged by the murder of a player by a former teammate and wrongdoing by the former coach, Baylor (21-10) earned its first NCAA berth in 20 years, and only the second since 1950.

The Bears are the No. 11 seed in the West Regional, and will play No. 6 Purdue (24-8) in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. The winner plays Xavier or Georgia, a team that has overcome its own scandal to get back in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2002.

Watching the selection show with about 600 fans at Baylor's coliseum, there were plenty of audible moans each time the name of another team was called. With the tension growing, Drew and senior guard Aaron Bruce occasionally stared down at the floor.

Then, finally, with only one spot left to fill, Baylor's name popped up on the screen. Drew bolted from his seat, pumped his fist and bear-hugged his assistant coaches. Bruce and his teammates embraced as the fans erupted.

Drew then exuberantly grabbed a microphone and led everyone in the "Sic 'Em Bears" cheer.

"We persevered," he shouted.

"The longer it got, the more stressful it got," Bruce said. "It wouldn't be us if it was easy. If we showed up in the first four teams, it wouldn't have been a good enough story for us. Just another piece of drama for us to deal with."

Drew has succeeded with a task that no coach should ever have to face.

When he arrived at the world's largest Baptist university in 2003, the roster was decimated after the top three scorers took advantage of relaxed transfer rules. There were NCAA and school-imposed penalties for former coach Dave Bliss' indiscretions that reduced scholarships and recruiting, and the Bears were limited to playing only a half-season just two years ago.

All that was after former player Patrick Dennehy was murdered, a crime for which former teammate Carlton Dotson pleaded guilty and is serving a 35-year prison term.

The death sparked a scandal that led to the resignation of Bliss, who on tapes secretly recorded by an assistant coach tried to portray Dennehy as a drug dealer. School investigators already had determined Bliss paid up to $40,000 in tuition for Dennehy and another player and improperly solicited $87,000 from boosters.

"That's part of it, that's where it started," said athletic director Ian McCaw, who was hired weeks after Drew. "But what people are going to focus on is the recovery and how this program's progressed from that."

Around that same time, the NCAA discovered that Georgia broke rules during Jim Harrick's tenure as coach.

Among the allegations were that Jim Harrick Jr., an assistant coach under his father, wired money to a friend of former player Tony Cole, then a prospect, for Cole's expenses; and fraudulently awarded three players an "A" grade in a physical education course he taught.

Georgia was down to seven players in 2003-04 and went 8-20 the next season, though scholarships were later restored on appeal.

The Bulldogs have only eight scholarship players now after the loss of two starters and a 7-foot backup center who quit the team, and two freshman lost with injuries. But after a 13-16 regular season, they won the Southeastern Conference's automatic NCAA bid by winning four SEC tournament games, including two in one day.

"It's been unbelievable, all the things that we've been through over four years have been really trying on both of us. We've kind of stuck together," said Georgia senior Dave Bliss, who has no known relation to the former Baylor coach. "That's just so rewarding for us after all we put into this."

There were only five scholarship players on Drew's first team at Baylor that lost 21 games in 2003-04. The Bears went 9-19 the following year before going 4-13 in an abbreviated season when the NCAA took away their nonconference schedule.

After finally having a full roster last season and going 15-16, Baylor started this season 12-2, the only losses coming to NCAA-bound Washington State and Arkansas, before a school-best 9-7 mark in the Big 12 that included a five-overtime victory over Texas A&M.

The potential setback was a double-overtime loss to last-place Colorado in the Big 12 tournament, when the Bears became the first No. 5 seed to lose in the first round. But on Sunday, they were the sixth Big 12 team _ and 65th team overall _ called for the Big 12 tournament.

"It was a tough way to get in, but we got in. I hoped it would be this year. Part of this is just confidence that we could come back from less than nothing and make it," school president John Lilley said. "It was just one of those tragic, tragic occasions, but I'm just proud of what Scott has built back."